1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, and a computer program product for outputting multiple contents in combination.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the variety of content business increases and more contents go on line recent years, right holders such as companies and individuals offer more advertisement contents or the like. Contents offered by different right holders may be combined in a form of a program or the like and offered to viewers. Various technologies for a device that offers multiple contents in combination have been suggested. Those technologies include controls performed by focusing on communication protocols or data formats and controls for ensuring conditions of using original contents when they are cited (see JP-A 2006-209619 and 2006-350971 (KOKAI)).
When multiple contents are offered in combination to viewers, the combination may incur damage to a right holder. For example, when a content presented by a company that places importance on brand image is displayed simultaneously or sequentially with a content containing sexual description, the image of the brand-image emphasizing company may be impaired, causing damage.
With the conventional technologies, the usage condition of a content can be controlled when it is singly used. However, the control cannot be performed on the conditions of the combined contents because the control is not designed to take the relationship of the contents into account. In other words, the contents can be combined, regardless of their types, as long as the usage condition of each content is satisfied. It is therefore difficult to solve the above problem.